The first breakfast show presenter was
Tony Blackburn, who spoke the first words on Radio 1 and remained in the slot for nearly six years. Other
DJs who have hosted the breakfast show for more than five years are current host
Greg James and former hosts
Nick Grimshaw,
Mike Read,
Simon Mayo, and
Chris Moyles. Moyles was the longest-serving Radio 1 breakfast show presenter, having hosted Radio 1's
The Chris Moyles Show for eight years from 2004 to 2012. • Data supplied by the BBC Genome Project .
Nick Grimshaw (2012–2018) Nick Grimshaw replaced Moyles as host of the breakfast show on 24 September 2012. Features included
Call or Delete, a game carried on from his previous show on Radio 1, where celebrity guests chose to either prank call a contact on their phone or delete their number altogether. Other segments included
The Nixtape, which saw Grimshaw select 30 minutes of party-oriented music before a DJ came in to mix listener requests to close the week on Friday mornings,
Happy Monday, a half-hour of uplifting songs on Monday mornings,
Showquizness, an irreverent daily quiz based around pop culture,
Happy Hardcore FM, which saw listeners phone into the show to scream over happy hardcore beats, and the daily
Waking Up Song, which featured celebrities encouraging listeners to get out of bed to the sound of
Pharoahe Monch. Grimshaw's incarnation of the breakfast show received strong critical reviews, but polarised public opinion, which was reflected in the show's often fluctuating listening figures – in February 2015, the show had 5.9 million listeners, with a small increase in listenership of 100,000. On 26 October 2017, it was reported that the show recorded 4.93 million weekly listeners between July and September – down from 5.5 million last quarter, a record low. The
Newsbeat news and sport bulletins were presented by
Tina Daheley at 6:30, 7:00, 7:30, 8:00, 8:30 and 9:30; there was also entertainment news from Sinead Garven at approximately 7:45 each morning.
Greg James (2018–present) Greg James replaced Grimshaw as host of the breakfast show on 20 August 2018. Roisin Hastie read the bulletins for
Newsbeat every half-hour except at 09:00 until her departure from the show in 2022 for maternity leave, when she was replaced by Calum Leslie. Features include Yesterday's Quiz and the Ten Minute Takeover, alongside Is It Just Us and Unpopular Opinions. In March 2020, at the start of the
COVID-19 pandemic,
Radio 1 Breakfast was moved to 7am until 11am.
Adele Roberts' Early Breakfast Show was extended by thirty minutes until 7am.
Scott Mills,
Chris Stark and
Clara Amfo rotated their shows every week between 11am and 3pm and Nick Grimshaw started his show at the earlier time of 3pm. The measures took place in order to help BBC Radio 1 promote
social distancing and to limit the number of staff allowed in the studio. The show was then reduced to 3 hours (i.e. 7am until 10am) since 29 June 2020, in which 10am until 11am was allocated for Radio 1 Anthems, also with
Greg James. The changes took place until 31 August 2020. Starting 1 September 2020, the schedule reverted to its 3 hours 30 minutes length, but running from 7am until 10:30am, instead of 6:30am until 10am as previously. In November 2020, Radio 1 announced that James's Breakfast show be broadcast five days a week from the start of January 2021. In July 2023, the show aired between 7:30-11:00 except for Friday when it was 7:00-10:30. This returned to 7:00-10:30 Monday-Friday in September 2023. This has occurred for every summer since. ==Stand-ins==